141. The Third Crusade: The Call of the Cross

The fall of Jerusalem in 1187 sent shockwaves all throughout the Christian world. 

The holy city had been a prize proudly held by the Crusaders since 1099, and now it was held firmly in the grasp of their enemies. 

However, a new storm was brewing in Europe. Widespread propaganda, recruitment campaigns, even a newly instituted "Saladin Tithe" to pay the way to the Levant. 

The Third Crusade was coming. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:52

Hey everybody, welcome to Church History for Chumps. My name is John Simon, and I'm here with my good friend Teler El Toro Tredoe.

SPEAKER_00 1:02

Was El Toro, the bull?

SPEAKER_02 1:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:04

Nice.

SPEAKER_02 1:05

Oh, that was pretty good. It would have been better if Mexico had just had not just lost to England about 10 minutes before we hit record, but what are you gonna do? Oh man, so peep so so people are pretty sad. I mean Mexicans mostly, but uh I mean I don't know. They they had a pretty big ru. I mean, I I was very much rooting for Mexico. I always love an underdog. I love an underdog story. So I was rooting for Cape Verde, um, that little tiny country out of Africa that just lost to Portugal, I think. I was I'm having a good time. You don't strike me as a World Cup fan.

SPEAKER_00 1:41

I only do things at level 10, and so if I was gonna be interested in the World Cup, I would already have to be like a huge footy.

SPEAKER_02 1:51

Sure. Yeah, but a big foot guy, as they say.

SPEAKER_00 1:54

Yeah, but it says the thing, I wouldn't even call it soccer.

SPEAKER_02 1:57

Yeah, that's the thing. Yeah, once you call it soccer, you kinda out yourself as like not really being bowed out. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:03

So that's why I don't I abstain. Not because I think it's dumb or anything. I just No, I hear you. Wow. Dude, I have to tell you something really funny that happens. I I want to know what you did for the fourth, though.

SPEAKER_02 2:18

Oh, I mean, that's a really easy answer. I hung out with my family on my wife's side. So we had a lot of fireworks. Actually, no, no. So all the kids for fireworks, bro. They they just they went out some arana. They did their own thing for fireworks. Um so we didn't do like the street fireworks like like uh Mexicans are often.

SPEAKER_00 2:44

Dude, in my neighborhood, it was popping. It's still popping with the leftovers.

SPEAKER_02 2:48

Like yeah, I heard them until about one last night. But honestly, lulled me right to sleep. I'm not mad about it. I'm not some dog who's like, oh, I have PTSD. Get out of here, dog. I don't care. Um, so yeah, not not much of an answer. But I had something happen during worship today that I thought would make you laugh. So I've explained this before to many of the good members of Chump Nation that I am a uh a displaced reformed man uh living take take in in diaspora, much like the Jews in the old testament, seeking refuge in the foreign waters of the Baptist of the Southern Baptist Convention. That's right. Um, and uh so Pastor David, who Taylor and I both know and love, he's a really great guy. He just got back from his like kind of annual month-long sabbatical back home in Alabama. Shout out to Pastor David. I know you don't listen, but you should. I think you'd like this. Um, but he comes back and he starts with a scripture reading and he's like, everyone please stand for the call to worship. And so where he's gonna read.

SPEAKER_00 3:50

Already off to a great start.

SPEAKER_02 3:52

Already off to a great start. And he says, uh, for this section, he's like, I'm gonna be reading from Psalm, I forget which one, let's say 17. And he's like, I'm gonna read this portion, and then I want you all to say the part that repeats, which I think was like God's love endures forever, or something like that, which is very non-controversial. Like there's been call and response in churches maybe since the beginning, but I very audibly hear this woman behind me who before he even starts reading is just like, I hate when he does this.

SPEAKER_01 4:26

I just thought, oh my gosh, it's I'm in the most Baptist place in the world.

SPEAKER_02 4:32

Wow, and I love it. I love this church, I do, but that just made me laugh really hard.

SPEAKER_00 4:36

It's all a lot of Baptist traditions are built on not doing anything like legalistic in their eyes, right? No high church, you know. Early Baptist churches, there was no singing. Uh-huh. You would just gather on Sunday and listen to like a collection of preachers that would all go for like 45 minutes at a time, and you would just Quakers.

SPEAKER_01 5:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:02

Basic bait, like you'd be there for hours. And the the thought of singing didn't enter Baptist's life for a while. Because they just anything that was like liturgical, they were like, no. So even in Little Miss Thelma or whatever her name is, she's like, this call and response stuff, this seems a little off to me.

SPEAKER_02 5:24

Also, I think I think Arizona Baptists are probably a little bit more because Arizona Baptists almost definitely had some negative run-in with Catholicism because of how big like the Hispanic population is here. So if it looks Catholic, they're like, what is dude?

SPEAKER_00 5:42

Especially like Hispanic Christians, they hate anything. I did I have I told you all about how when I was a youth pastor, I had to Taylor had to run damage control for the Catholics. Please tell us. That's when you know it's bad. Oh, just like half of my youth group was from families that left Catholicism and their parents like raised them to hate Catholics.

SPEAKER_01 6:05

Mm-hmm.

unknown 6:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:06

And I had to be like, okay, hold on, guys.

SPEAKER_02 6:09

Yeah. And it's it's really interesting. It's very interesting. Because like Catholicism as a whole, I think, can be very much defensible when you look at it historically and theologically. Mexican Catholicism can get a little weird. Uh, you know, we talked about that when we did our little mini episode on uh Santa Muerte, uh, when we did our episode on Our Lady of Guadalupe. Like, there's still kind of a lot of paganism that runs rampant in Mexican Catholicism. So like when I hear stories that my mother-in-law tells about like how her how her like relatives used to worship before she left Catholicism, I'm usually like, ugh, if that's true, that's not great.

SPEAKER_00 6:53

Um Yeah, I g I it's kind of like, look, guys, I get it, but let's just make sure we're right. Being being reasonable.

SPEAKER_02 7:02

Let's not throw the baptized baby out with the bath water. But you know, uh yeah, it's a little it's a little tricky.

SPEAKER_00 7:11

What did you do for Fourth of July, my friend? We went to we had a party that was most I would say our Sunday school class hosted it, but other people from church were invited. And it was a uh it was a a 50 states party, so you're supposed to bring a dish from a state. So I wanted to eat a lote dip, and so I said, Brandy, let's bring um New Mexico corn salad. Okay, that's pretty good. Yeah, how was it?

SPEAKER_02 7:44

Yeah, it was a hit. What were the stately highlights? Like, was there like a Nebraska representative?

SPEAKER_00 7:51

My friend Ruth brought um she wanted to make Asian food, and so she was like, This is Hawaiian shrimp. And it was like shrimp with soy sauce. Yeah, it was really good. It was really good. And then uh she brought spam masubis, those were my highlights. Oh brother, man. Yeah, but then some other people did the same thing we did. Like somebody was like, I'm gonna bring Idaho mashed potatoes.

SPEAKER_02 8:24

It's like, ah, we could we could do better than this, can't we? I don't know. I love the obscure stuff, you know. Like, what do you bring from Alaska? Like caribou? Like cod. I don't know. Oh, yeah, I guess. Salmon. Mm-hmm. Or like uh Floridas could be like uh like a key lime pie. Gator. Or alligator, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:46

Yeah, that can come from Louisiana. Some people some people some people brought beignets. Beignets are delicious. Yeah, that's a good that's a good move. Yeah. I know. I'm kinda hoping I can go back to New Orleans for work soon. I have to like find an event, find some Baptist thing that's going on out there.

SPEAKER_02 9:03

And then just make a pitch for how badly the people need to hear the good news of Gateway Seminary.

SPEAKER_00 9:09

Yeah, yeah, basically. And then I can go I can go visit Jackson Square again.

SPEAKER_02 9:14

And eat some more beignets and bowls of gumbo.

SPEAKER_00 9:18

Or red beans. I uh I change it. Sometimes it's red beans and rice. Sometimes it's jumbo.

SPEAKER_02 9:23

I'm not mad at that. I I I love a good red beans and rice has that like savory kind of feels like home.

SPEAKER_00 9:29

I think gumbo has been hit or miss. Really? I think even in New Orleans, because some someplace you can walk into a little hole in the wall and have the best bowl of gumbo in your life, or you can go to some place that's supposed to be good and the gumbo's like meh.

SPEAKER_02 9:44

Well, it's like getting pasta in Rome. It's like, you know, it's probably good most places, but then there are some places that know you're gonna go inside just because they're in Rome. And they might be jobs.

SPEAKER_00 9:56

Yeah, exactly. So shout out to the listeners and we have um we we want to thank you all for your comments on Spotify. Jackson asked, no, it was Jacob asked, What would we name a child? I've been thinking about this all week, bro.

SPEAKER_02 10:19

If you had to name a child after a crusader, yeah. You know what actually came to mind first, which I did which would surprise me? Guy. Dude, that was my answer too! Guy Guy Simon. I don't know, there's something about it. Guy Treadway. I uh can I uh how about let's make suggestions for each other because I've got an idea for you that I think you'd really like. Okay. Raymond. Raymond Treadway. Ray Treadway. RT RT, yeah, come on. I I think it's retweet. That's good. Yeah, dude. I I don't know. I'm saying I think that might be a good one. Um, what do you have for me? Um Saladine.

SPEAKER_00 11:04

The Muslims. Nur Ner Simon. Zangi Simon. Saladine Nur Zangid Simon.

SPEAKER_02 11:14

Oh no, no, we're Christian. I just really admire their military prowess. Very respectful, very respectful. I really didn't want to.

SPEAKER_00 11:25

We have to do some a slight history correction from our last episode, by the way. So we had sort of um hinted that Saladin was gonna continue on in his military might. And uh actually, as our research continued, we realized, uh oh, poor, poor Sal is uh actually gonna be he hit he hit his uh peak in last episode. Siege of Jerusalem was his crowning achievement. Right.

SPEAKER_02 11:55

And I don't he okay, I don't want to spoil too much because we tend to spoil pretty much everything right away, which I'm not gonna do that. Yeah uh but he is definitely gonna have some speed bumps. And and I will say this the crusaders are gonna prove to be a much bigger problem than they did, what, 50, 40 years ago in the second crusade. So stay tuned for that. Yeah I have a request for our listeners. I I we always talk about the comments. We've also talked about how much we appreciate just the diverse theological, traditional background of our listeners. I would love to know if you guys are okay minorly doxxing yourselves. Just shout out what your background is. What are you? Non-denom, uh Episcopalian, AOG, Baptist. Well, I already said I already said Baptist when I said non-denom. But Catholic Orthodox, we'd love to know. Um, because then once when we know who's represented, we can, you know, maybe do some episodes that uh favor those that uh maybe we haven't yet, you know. Maybe a good uh a good old Anglican episode. So who knows?

SPEAKER_00 13:01

Or all the charismatics could buy us to favorably cover Azusa Street.

SPEAKER_02 13:07

We could just be oh actually, that's on the list, bro. We can I I don't think I can with that with good conscience not do Azusa Street.

SPEAKER_00 13:15

Yeah, I'm saying we'll we'll do it in favor.

SPEAKER_02 13:17

Oh, like we'll actually we'll talk about liking it. How great it was. Yeah. Dude, have you ever done any research on Azusa Street? It's fascinating.

SPEAKER_00 13:27

I've yeah, I'm so it is fascinating.

SPEAKER_02 13:30

There's a lot of you know, it's really easy to be like, oh, a bunch of weird, but it's yeah, some something was going on. I that's all I'll say. So we'll save it for another episode. Um, anyways. Well, we should probably get into it. Greetings to all the listeners who just skipped to this part of the podcast. We uh we understand. Um and I've got a really cool cold opening.

SPEAKER_00 13:52

I am?

SPEAKER_02 13:53

Oh the people who okay, sorry. I made that about me. I shouldn't have done that. All right, I have a really cool cold open of extreme. Get me. All right. The sun rises on Chateau de Gizor. The light of dawn beams inside through the octagonal stone of the Normandy castle, draping along the wooden floors where stood the most powerful men in all of Europe. Several French counts occupied the space, representing Flanders, Blois, Le Perche, Champagner, to name a few. Each of their gazes fell upon the pair sitting before them Richard I, the King of England, and Philip II, the King of France, the respective kings and longtime rivals. Your father was a petty man, said the French king. It's a shame your attempts at rebellion were such utter failures. In that case, Richard retorted, should we not consider your dear sister lucky for having been stood up by me on so many occasions? The counts snickered quietly to themselves. You have some nerve to Richard held up a hand to stop him, a powerful gesture from a man who held equal status as king. We are not here for friendship, Philip, only partnership. Let our quarrel rest while the saints of Jerusalem suffer. Today we are neither English nor French, but Christians. Philip nodded. Let us take the cross together. The two men clasped hands together with a sonic clap that was so loud that it shook every tree in the town. Richard beamed with a smile of pride and camaraderie, and Philip smiled too, barely concealing his thoughts of future betrayal.

SPEAKER_00 15:51

That was very good. Thank you. Yeah. The tree shaking at their handshake was so anime. Like I was visualizing to it. I'm visualizing it in my head, and I'm like, dang, this is really good. I can like smell the breeze of France, you know? Yes. And then and it I'm seeing it in like actors are there. Yes, yes, and then and then they do the clasp, and then my brain turns into like Japanese art. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:18

That was oh, I'll say slightly intentional. Yeah, no, I wanted I wanted over the top at that point. Um, but yeah, so to say what's been said, uh, we are, of course, continuing through our course through the Third Crusade. Taylor did an excellent job last week explaining, like you said, the the crown jewel achievement of Saladin, the the Sultan of the Ayyubid dynasty, kind of in many ways, uniting much of the Islamic world, and then uh proving that he was a man of religious piety and not just of military success in the like triumphant victory at Hateen and then the conquering of Jerusalem. Was that was that a good good recap?

SPEAKER_00 17:09

Dude, I totally realized I west I had never heard anybody pronounce Hatton before. I'm not even sure.

SPEAKER_02 17:16

I have no idea.

SPEAKER_00 17:17

No, you're right. I heard I I listened to a YouTube video. Here's here's the thing. Here's a little behind-the-scenes look at where we get our sources. We read everything and listen to everything. Yeah, so sometimes it's like a primary source that's barely intelligible, sometimes it's a historian explaining the primary source, and sometimes it's some cheaply animated YouTube video where some guy just says stuff and we don't know if it's true. But in that cheaply animated YouTube video, I heard him say Hateen and I went, Oh.

SPEAKER_02 17:45

I just assume because it's kind of like the Arabic kind of pronunciation, but even then, I don't know. It wasn't.

SPEAKER_00 17:51

I mean, I it's you words are words. I I super westernized it, it doesn't matter. It's true. I mean, I've been calling a hattin. Hatton.

SPEAKER_02 17:58

I've been calling Outramare Outreamer for the past six months. So we're just gonna do it. We got it.

SPEAKER_00 18:03

And I are we saying Acre wrong?

SPEAKER_02 18:06

Or is Acre right? No, I'm pretty sure that's wrong too. The thing is, I haven't I'm listening to a Crusades audiobook with a guy with an English accent. So I don't want to repronounce everything Englishly.

SPEAKER_00 18:18

But yeah, but he pronounces everything wrong.

SPEAKER_02 18:20

I think he says Acre? I don't know. I don't know. I don't think it's Acre. I don't think it's like the word.

SPEAKER_00 18:29

It is for this podcast.

SPEAKER_02 18:30

It sure is. Alright. Um, so to cut so today we're gonna kind of shift our focus to Europe and what is happening as the news of this catastrophic fall really happens. And I I think the best way to grasp just how bad this was is to realize just the height. So I I thought of like an analogy, it's a very imperfect analogy, but it kind of brings us into like more modern American history. So like imagine if the Vietnam War happened in the 90s. Like, just for the sake of, I know that doesn't fit, but imagine happening in the 90s. So, like in the 90s, you've got uh this tremendous like fall off of American morale. Um, suddenly people don't believe in the institution of war. They're frustrated that we're sending young lives to to fight meaningless battles. Like, all of a sudden, people the people are spitting on the soldiers when they come back. Like everything is like terrible, and they're like, this stinks. Like, we should not have gotten involved in this war. The guys who went over there are baby killers. Like, imagine that happens, and then like six years later, 9-11 happens, and then all of a sudden it's like the morale just goes like from the very bottom to like zooms right back up to the top because a catastrophe happens, and when a catastrophe happens, you're just like time to batten the hatches, like we're we're gonna get back into this, and so like that's kind of how I've come to see what the fall of Jerusalem was because as we've said before, the second crusade fell apart in so many ways. Um, uh the county of Edessa was come not reclaimed, it was it was it had been raised to the ground before the crusading armies even showed up.

SPEAKER_00 20:23

Well, and and their hearts weren't even remember the first call to the second crusade fell on deaf ears.

SPEAKER_02 20:29

Right.

SPEAKER_00 20:30

You had to bring in Bernard of Clairvaux to do a PR stint for it.

SPEAKER_02 20:34

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 20:35

And give it some theological weight, and that was enough to like get them enough troops, right? But it was it was not the same.

SPEAKER_02 20:43

Yeah, and so and so the fact that it failed was so much worse because now I mean like Bernard addresses it in some of his end-of-life writings where he's like, God's mysterious. I thought we had a guaranteed W. Maybe the crusaders were just a bunch of sinning weirdos, and God punished them, and that's why it didn't work. Like, um, I read a quote from I I I wish I remembered who it was, but it was basically like a like a commentary, a like a social commentary, and from this contemporary period, and he's like, shame on the church for like deceiving the people and sending them on a worthless campaign. Like they were like, This whole thing is terrible, like we need to stop trying to chase this glorious dream of be of of the first crusade and just let this whole notion go away. So in that time, in those decades between the second and third crusades, there was a lot of animosity and like apathy about just how bad of a failure that was. Um but then, like I said, the equivalent of 9-11 happens.

SPEAKER_00 21:53

Right. Jerusalem falls, and all the newsboys are out there x-tre, extra.

SPEAKER_02 21:57

Yes, yes, and it's huge. And something you mentioned last week, which uh is also very, very relevant because we know how much our medieval church loves the relics, the true cross was taken, which they believed to be the cross of Jesus. And we we did touch on that in our relics episode, and uh I think sources are mixed at best about if uh there's any the guy who said he buried it and was like I could go find it.

SPEAKER_00 22:30

I just He never found it.

SPEAKER_02 22:32

He never found it, yeah. Yeah, so um but yeah. I mean they the the the church in in Europe was very, very proud of the fact that they had reclaimed the holy city, that they had made safe passage for all of the pilgrims, that they had honored all of the uh Christians who lived there. Like and again, they'd been being fed this propaganda that like every time the Muslims are in charge, they like force Christians to eat out of dog bowls and they you know beat them up on their way to church, which is not exactly true. There's a lot of coexistence that happens between Muslims and Christians throughout the areas of Palestine. Uh, but so they basically think, oh, there's this evil, awful presence that has come and taken everything from Jerusalem. And again, like one of the things I found interesting was that uh when you look at the date of when Pope Gregory VIII issues his papal bull, he wouldn't have had time to know about the fall of Jerusalem, but he did hear about the fall of Hattin or Hattin. And so he was basically able to assess, oh, Jerusalem is definitely going to fall because of how bad reports are of what happened in this place. Uh and so interesting.

SPEAKER_00 23:54

That's it's that and I think it's good to remember how slow things move back then. Yeah. I mean, what I don't I don't remember the dates, but if we're using the 9-11 thing, like 9-11 happens and we have full occupant occup like we have full-on occupancy of the country like very quickly. Yeah. Whereas whereas back then news took time.

SPEAKER_02 24:19

Sure. Yeah. I mean, like you said, like we m millions of Americans were watching when the second plane crashed because of that. That's how much access we had to frontline information. There were people who were signing up for the crusades in this time period who didn't even know that Jerusalem had fallen yet, but they'd assumed it had, but news had not yet traveled there yet. So that's definitely a thing. Also, another thing was Saladin had very different responses to the Battle of Hateen, to the Siege of Jerusalem. In Hateen, this is when he killed all the knights, the knights, the Templar Knights, and all the hospitalers. It's when he beheaded Reynold. Um, like he was really brutal in that battle. Not so much with the siege of Jerusalem, but that's not the information. Like the it's not like the Pope is like, we need to restore Jerusalem, even though he seems like a pretty nice guy. Like it was, you know, Satan has moved in, and now we need to get back over there and help our brothers. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:25

That's a really good thing to keep in mind that this the Sal Saladin's PR from Jerusalem didn't really matter because the news of Hateen had Exactly. And it was bad.

SPEAKER_02 25:40

He killed he I think he killed most of the men. He uh set a lot of them into slavery. And yeah, like we said, all of the elite knights were like slaughtered.

SPEAKER_00 25:49

So I heard a thing that like in the markets Christian slaves were going for like three denari or something because there were so many of them.

SPEAKER_02 25:59

Oh, no, I did hear that. Yeah, like there were so many slaves hit the market that the value of them went down, which is just nuts. What I heard also from a similar source was that the reason they were killing off all of the knights of the Templar is because they weren't reliable slaves, because all of them just kept conspiring and trying to revolt, basically. Sounds about right. So they were like, all right, well, we're just gonna kill you guys because of the wheel. I was thinking about this.

SPEAKER_00 26:25

Would you have been a good slave? Like if you got captured, would you have been a good slave? I don't know. That's a hard question to ask. I mean, like, would you be conspiring, or would you be like, well, this is my lot in life, I'm gonna play ball.

SPEAKER_02 26:39

Well, I guess like when you look at the like the Bible does say that, like, if you're a slave, be a good and humble slave and hopefully your master won't mistreat you. But yeah, I don't know. I'd I I don't know if I want to channel my inner John Brown and just start staging revolts. Because that's the alternative.

SPEAKER_00 26:59

I feel like I'd be the best, I'd be the best slave in the thing.

SPEAKER_02 27:02

Very cooperative, very hard working.

SPEAKER_00 27:04

Oh yeah. But then then the idea would be like, okay, can I still be Christian though?

SPEAKER_02 27:10

Right, right. And I bet they that's a good question. Yeah. I mean, you know, we yeah, because we know that Saladin was pretty chill about like letting the Jerusalem Christians worship. But yeah, what is that like for slaves? That's a good question. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 27:25

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:26

Do the slaves get to go to church if they're living with a guy who goes to mosque? Or does he have to convert? Oh, that's a good question. I know. That's a really good question. I know. Um, the like defining document that was circulated, like I mentioned the the papal, the papal bull um was the Audite Tremendi. Uh possibly written by Urban III before he died. No one's totally sure. So people think that maybe he wrote that out and then the shock really settled, and then he died. Um, but it was issued by Gregory VIII, whether he wrote it or not. And there's some really good quotes here. I'll read a few. Um he says, uh, this is basically just him saying, like, yeah, we heard the news of what happened, we're utterly shocked by it. But it's also where he kind of spells out some of the things that lets you know what was going on in their minds. Like one quote he says was, moreover, we not we ought not believe that these things happened because of the unjust act of the judge, i.e. God, but rather by the iniquity of an unworthy people. So this is a really interesting thing about the call of the Third Crusade, is that there is a ton of emphasis put on we need to repent. Like we need to fast more, we need to humble ourselves. Like the reason God let this happen is not just because Saladin is Satan's best friend, it's also because we're evil and God is judging us for that.

SPEAKER_00 28:57

So they're saying essentially, you know, Jeremiah, Isaiah, that kind of language.

SPEAKER_02 29:02

Absolutely, very much so. Very, very much so. Um, another good quote, he says, uh, he says, We therefore should heed and be concerned about the sins not only of the inhabitants of that land, but also of our own and those of the whole Christian people, so that what is left of that land may not be lost and their power rage in other regions. So he's basically like, if we don't repent of our own sins, then this is gonna keep happening, and more Christians are gonna lose their lives to these Muslims. So it's very like uh yeah, repent lest the wrath of God do more damage to your to your nation. Um he says, For we hear from every direction of scandals and conflicts between kings and princes among cities, so that we lament with the prophet and are able to say, There is no truth, no knowledge of God in the land, lying, murder, and adultery abound, and blood pursues blood, which is a quote from Hosea 4. And then he concludes with, For this reason everyone must understand and act accordingly, so that by atoning for our sins we may be converting, may be may be converted to the Lord by penance and works of piety, and we may first alter in our lives the evil that we do, and this is the this is like this kind of dark chilling line. He says, Then we can deal with the savagery and malice of our enemies, and what they do not fear to try against God, we will not hesitate to do for God. Which is very like, oh, if the if the Muslims want to be cruel and violent as an insult to the God that we serve, we're gonna show that we're willing to do the same to them.

SPEAKER_00 30:48

Very Christ-like.

SPEAKER_02 30:49

Very, very, very uh, I mean, like this is uh this is George Bush at ground zero with the fighter pilot um suit on, you know. He's like, We're gonna we're gonna give it back. We're gonna give it back to those uh to those terrorists, you know.

SPEAKER_00 31:05

This is uh Toby Keith song.

SPEAKER_02 31:10

Put a boot in your hand. It's the American win.

SPEAKER_00 31:14

Yeah, that's right. Except it's uh Uncle Sam has your name. It's Saladin is on the name of uh Uncle Uncle Sal. Well Uncle Yeah, Saladin's name is at the top of their list. That's right, that's right, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:30

Top of the uh FBI most wanted list. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:34

Woo.

SPEAKER_02 31:35

Yeah, so uh very, very interesting. Um but again, I mean, I and I I think I'll I'll probably get more into this later, but the M like there is, I think, the temptation as those who are fairly critical of the Crusades, which I think I would consider myself that, and I think I would consider my good friend that as well. Um That's right. And it's that we almost act like, oh, well, the religion was just a byproduct, like the religion was was um was not central to this. And I think I would actually push back on that and say, while I don't think this is good theology, I definitely think they are legitimately acting out of religious and spiritual conviction. Because what we see when we get into the leaders who are going to be involved in this is that there's very little political benefit to most of them embarking on the third crusade. A lot of them are actually making their nations vulnerable by sending their kings and counts and nobles and all that, but they choose to go because they really do feel this spiritual obligation.

SPEAKER_00 32:46

Let me offer a minor pushback. Okay. I think they benefited politically because England and France stopped fighting with each other and they all levied the saladine tax on like across Europe.

SPEAKER_02 33:05

That is that is a good point, yes.

SPEAKER_00 33:07

And so you now have all your people give into the war fund, it gives them something to do. They're no longer fighting people across the street or across, you know, the canal.

SPEAKER_02 33:19

And like I said, I don't wanna I'm not trying to I'm not trying to be a contrarian, but I think we should just acknowledge I'm a contrarian, you're a contrarian. It's what makes the show work. I think it's okay. Yeah, it's all right.

SPEAKER_00 33:36

I I I struggle wondering like when we when we when when you when we read Bernard and like Bernard believed what he was saying. And I do think a lot of them probably did. Um I I just have a hard time like okay, spoiler alert. Outside of Acre, um Richard will execute like 50 or 1200 Muslims. He'll behead them. Yeah, the massacre, yeah. Yes, he'll behead them in front of Saladin's armies. And he did that first. Then Saladin was like, oh, okay, well, I'll kill your Christians and then return the favor. But it's just kind of like it's it's hard to see let us repent of our ways and let's go do God's justice. And it's kind of like, well, you just they were already prisoners, man. I agree, I agree. At the very least, ship them back, ship them back to Europe as slaves. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 34:43

Like, what you're saying is not not true. Um I will say from the little that I did read. That's right. You're not lying. Like you're not intentionally lying. No, no, no. Um, what I did the very little that I did read about that massacre story, I did read that several of the Christians, even contemporaries, were very upset about Richard's decision to do that, which I thought was interesting.

SPEAKER_00 35:09

That's okay.

SPEAKER_02 35:10

I miss that detail. That's good. Yeah, it's good to know. And I again, like, their whole theology of war and nation and uh personal holiness, I would say all of those definitions are distorted. I would say that like their like even, and this is a very interesting theological touch, is that when the propaganda for the Third Crusade comes out, they do a lot of what I would consider um problematic theologizing, where they'll take qu quotes from the old testament and basically put themselves in the shoes of Israel, and they'll say, like, like it's kind of like that old argument, I I I want to be careful using this, but like um people will say that kind of about America, you know, they'll do the whole military spiel and say, like, oh well, you know, if we fight for this, then God will protect us. And it's a quote from the old testament within that context. Like they're they're using that theology of like we are God's people, not as Christians, but as part of Christendom. And because that's true, like it's almost like the church isn't the r new Israel, but almost like Christendom is the new Israel, so we are like this embody embodiment of God's kingdom, which means that enemies of Christendom are enemies of Christ, and we're defending Christ, fighting for Christendom.

SPEAKER_00 36:42

It's understandable how they get there when you when you mix Christian and government. Exactly. When the church is government and they attack a government, you're actually attacking the church. Right. Uh you know, so I will say, I will say, am I doing another spoiler when I talk about how they didn't kill the Jews this time? That was maybe my favorite part. Yeah. So listeners, every time a crusade has been called, literally on the way to the crusades, they've just like stopped by and killed a bunch of Jews in Germany. You know, just having a good it's on the way. It's on the way we're on appetizer. Yeah, just get off the get off the freeway and yeah. So they tried to do that again. And this time the leader, it was the king of Germany, was absolutely not. Do not touch them. Anybody that touches the Jews will be put to death.

SPEAKER_02 37:39

Yeah. So And even uh Richard, when I think it was when Richard was coronated as king, um, the Jews were like prohibited from coming to like his ceremony, and some did, and then they the other people got mad that Jews showed up where they weren't supposed to be, so they started, you know, beating up Jews and burning down synagogues. And and Richard was like, hey, we're not we're not doing that.

SPEAKER_00 38:04

Oh, Richard stopped some too. That's good. Richard stopped some too.

SPEAKER_02 38:07

Yeah, I think the only one I saw that didn't seem to care that much was Philip, the French king. Um, which I don't know. I don't know if French You don't know what to do with that.

SPEAKER_00 38:17

I'm gonna leave it. I'm gonna leave it there. Yeah. So so maybe there is some legitimate Christian spirit behind the third, like actual Christian conviction behind the third crusade.

SPEAKER_02 38:32

Yeah, and I think like I think there's a difference between having a religious motivation and having a Christian motivation. Like this is something that that is talked about with Saladin a lot, where it's like, before he did take Jerusalem, there were contemporaries who were like, is this guy is this guy about jihad or is he about Saladin? Like, is he about building an empire or is he about doing things that are good for Islam? And so like I think even the Crusaders, they can be acting religiously within a Christianity that we upon retrospect find uh in ways distorted, distasteful, really not Christ-like all the time. But we can still say you had a religious motivation, maybe not the the the religion of of Christ, but there was still a religious motivation.

SPEAKER_00 39:27

So you don't you don't know if there was a Christian conviction still? I feel like talking about repenting is pretty good. That is good. Warms my little heart.

SPEAKER_02 39:39

It does, yeah, that's that's a that's a great thing. And I I think that it would be interesting once we've finished the Third Crusade to look back on it and kind of reflect and say, did these guys have more of a did they feel more of a Christian obligation? Like did they do things more Christianly than the guys in the past? That would be interesting. Um, but yeah, I don't know. There's still lots of weird politicking that happens. Um, as I kind of alluded to in the cold open, there's gonna be some stuff with Philip II that we'll get into. But um, yeah, last thing I'll kind of say about the the call itself. So again, uh this is the call of the cross. Like, will you accept the call of the cross? Like, that's the whole like will you be a crusader? There's lots of language. They um there were a few things I thought was interesting. So they plaster Europe with tons and tons of propaganda, they're distributing pamphlets left and right. Uh, I'm I mean, I'm not sure that literacy was that big back then, but maybe it was actually I do know it was very image heavy because there were two images that were very popular during this time. One was an image, and some of these just cracked me up because they sound like like political cartoons. One was literally an image of Jesus getting punched in the face by an Arab. Like wow, like you really can't get any more on the nose than that. Um, and then another one was an image of a Muslim soldier um sitting on horseback as the horse was jumping over the church of the hell hell the church of the holy sepulchre, and as it was doing so, the church or the the horse was peeing on the church. And so there's these images of basically like the Arab represents Islam, which is evil, it represents um not just destruction to Christian people, but an insult to God. Like it's it's slapping God in the face that they've done what they've done. Um, so obviously very something that really stirs up your emotions and makes you, you know, wanna wanna jump into battle. Um, I read that they would actually preach crusade sermons oftentimes after people would take the Eucharist in the Mass. Um, so they would basically say, like, yeah, you know, like uh you guys just took the body and blood of Jesus and um, you know, Jesus' body and blood.

SPEAKER_00 42:13

The people in the Middle East.

SPEAKER_02 42:16

They called him exemplar, which was basically like kind of the cheesy moral at the end of like uh like a like a story, but they would tell these anecdotes literally like that, and they'd be like, Yeah, you know, the body and blood of Jesus, like Jesus is just so pure to us, you guys, but you know who hates Jesus? Muslims. And you know where they live right now? Jerusalem.

SPEAKER_00 42:42

So with every head bowed and every eye closed, if you want to take up the cross today, I want you to raise your hand.

SPEAKER_02 42:49

Thank you. I see that hand, I see that hand over there. I see that hand. Oh no. Oh man, there was uh oh man. Well oh, there was a story, there was one story that uh Thomas Asbridge highlighted, which was the story of a mother who suffocated her child because he tried because the child tried to deter his father from going on crusade. And so it was like, ah, what a horrible tragedy for this family. If only this kid knew how important the crusades were. And so this is like emotional exploitation to the max, dude. It's it's crazy. But again, I don't think I still for all for all the the mess here, think there was a lot of sincerity here.

SPEAKER_00 43:42

Um would you say more sincerity in the going into the third crusade than the first? Oh, that's tough.

SPEAKER_02 43:49

Because it's the first was so grassroots, you know.

SPEAKER_00 43:52

And it's really hard to, I think maybe their intentions were in the right spot. You know, the the Seljuks are ripping through, and it's probab it's like the same thing, but I don't know. We saw when they got over there they did not act Christian whatsoever. No, not not too much, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:13

Um, I think the first crusade had more opportunity for like lordship and for implementing the feudal system because it was like the Wild West. Like there was so much room for settling, um, which people did. Like counts explicitly, I always think of Boamond. There were people who explicitly went out there because they wanted land and they wanted to kind of put their name out there. There. I think with the third crusade, there were people who did that, but there's not as much opportunity for that because there's already a city there. There's already a population. You're just trying to get out Satan and his minions in your in your mind. Like they're not thinking.

SPEAKER_00 44:53

It's a little more. Well, and remember, that's what they said the first crusade was. Exactly. They said, and then it was actually in the back of their minds a land grab. Whereas this might be a hey, let's unite over going and killing a bunch of bad guys. Like who doesn't, you know, like we'll get get the war machine turning, everyone's gonna pay the Saladine tax, and we're all gonna go over there and beat the bad guys so that the Christians can live peacefully. Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_02 45:22

And I do want to talk about the Saladine tax, but but first I want to get into uh just kind of the three main figures that we're gonna see here um as they come out. So again, the second crusade was such a big deal because you had both the king of France and the Emperor of Germany, or the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire at the time, who came out. This one's gonna be even bigger because you're gonna have the kings of England and France who we spoke about, and then you've got the Emperor of Germany, um Frederick of Barbarossa.

SPEAKER_00 45:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 45:56

And he's an interesting dude because he's in his 60s when he goes out on this. So he's like he I I just think of like uh like Alfred from Batman, but like like tough Alfred, like from the DCU movies.

SPEAKER_00 46:09

Frederick's fate is far sadder than Alfred.

SPEAKER_02 46:13

Let's not spoil it, man. Come on, we gotta give people something to look forward to. Actually, oh, I wonder what his fate will look like. Yeah. Oh, does he kill Saladin? Or does he? He does. Um, and then we've got two people. One, Philip II, King of France. Uh he's an interesting dude because uh he he kind of so he's got some personal vendettas against Richard. Also, Richard, probably one of the most famous crusaders of all time. Richard I, also known as Richard the Lionheart, King of England. Um, he is going to um, after Philip decides to head home early, um, he's going to take like official command of the crusade, and most of the victories that happen in this crusade will be attributed to him. Um Like him or hate him, Richard's a beast. He's a monster. He is a monster.

SPEAKER_00 47:08

And I same, I mean, uh, you know, in Saladin, we're like Yeah, I mean, we talked about Saladin. Hey, look, you know, guy knew what he was doing. Richard knew what he was doing.

SPEAKER_02 47:17

Richard actually gets the nickname Lionheart before he even goes on Crusade. So this isn't a nickname that history gave him. He actually was given it by his contemporaries, which is kind of cool. Um, he was a dude who has this like King Arthur level of lore around him. It it kind of reminds me of Godfrey from like way back in the first crusade, but I think times 10. Because remember when we read those quotes from the Arab historians about Saladin, and they were like, he was the nicest guy. Like he would open doors for grandmas, and then he would hand out hundred dollar bills to homeless people. He gave out full-sized candy bars to Halloween kids. Like, yeah, you know, it's kind of the same thing for Richard, which is what makes their showdown so exciting. Because uh, yeah, I have some great quotes. Also, there's one story that circulated for a while that Richard got his name because he literally fought and killed a lion with his bare hands, and upon defeating it, ripped or reached down its throat and ripped its heart out of its chest, which is just the most medieval, like pageography kind of thing I've ever seen. And then you must reach into the lion. And he was twelve years old when that happened. Yeah. Um I've got some other quotes. These are uh direct quotes from contemporaries that say he was tall, of elegant build. The color of his hair was between red and gold. His limbs were supple and straight. He had quite long arms, which were particularly convenient for drawing a sword and wielding it most effectively. His long legs matched the arrangement of his whole body. I love they're not like they're not saying he's handsome, they're like he was very well proportionate. Like well proportionate, he's a long guy.

SPEAKER_00 49:11

He's a long guy, straight limbs, straight. Wasn't bow legged?

SPEAKER_02 49:15

No, no, yeah. Only bends where they were supposed to be. So um this one said Richard had the valor of Hector, the heroism of Achilles. He was not inferior to Alexander. Also, which is very unusual for one so renowned as a knight, Nestor's tongue and Ulysses' wisdom enabled him to excel others in every undertaking, both in speaking and acting. So he's kind of seen as like this conglomeration of all of these classical heroes. He's like Achilles and Hector and Alexander the Great, and uh so yeah, he's got a lot of lore around him. The historical narrative of him has been really interesting. I kind of get the sense that for the first few hundred years after his life, he was seen as like this perfect superman god figure, and then there was a big chunk of time where everyone was like, actually, no, I think he was a psychopath where they were like he he served he was a king of England for 10 years, and he only spent one of those years actually living in England. Why? Because he was constantly at war. Maybe this guy cared more about war than being a king. So I think modern historians are probably more nuanced, but there's been some back and forth on his reputation.

SPEAKER_00 50:35

Well, I also we need to be aware of the hyper critique of Western culture. Yeah, yeah, that's you know, like you were not uh Asbridge was willing to say, hey, Saladin did initially want to murder everyone in Jerusalem.

SPEAKER_02 50:54

Everyone who is initially thought of as a heroic figure is eventually going to get the pendulum on the other side. What we're trying to say, everybody, is just embrace nihilism. People are complicated, people is where I thought you were going with that. Right. Oh man. Um, so Philip II is um the king of France. They have this weird arrangement that honestly took me a long time to try to figure out. I'm not gonna get into the weeds with it, but essentially, um Richard is not even English by blood, he's actually got a lot of French in him, so he is part of these dynasties, I think the Anjou dynasty. So he's got a lot of French blood, and through that French blood, he has dukedoms, and so even though he is the king of England, he is the Duke of Normandy and Anjou, and I think a couple of other pretty significant territories in France. Well, that helps with peace between sort of because like on the one hand, he and Philip both care about those territories, but Philip also hates the fact that like he has an equal who is also an inferior, right? Like that he's like basically this landlord over territory that he's Philip's not Philip's not the Duke of London, you know.

SPEAKER_00 52:19

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 52:20

Yeah, that would that would be like the way to equal it out, but that's not the case. So Philip kind of resents the fact that uh Richard kind of has uh has has a has a pinky finger in the cookie jar, as it were.

SPEAKER_00 52:32

Can't blame him.

SPEAKER_02 52:33

Yeah, so um and and another thing which I don't think I like or dislike this for Richard, like I said, he's he's a very brash dude, he's a very unapologetic dude, uh, which is gonna work in his favor sometimes, other times not so much. One of the reasons Richard and Philip don't like each other is because when Richard and Philip are very much at odds with each other, Richard agrees to marry this woman named Alice of France, who is Richard's sister. And so the sense is like, oh, well, if they marry, then we can have kids that will hopefully resolve the territorial disputes. And um, you know, it's a very diplomatic thing, like it's a very like olive branch thing. But all he does is get engaged to her, and he always talks it up about how diplomatic he is, but he never marries her. And eventually he breaks off the engagement to marry someone totally different, and Philip realizes, oh, I've just been played, like you just played me to like you know emphasize this sense of diplomacy, but you didn't actually follow through. Um Richard's like, well, whatever. Um, and so yeah, Richard and Philip don't super like each other, they're also really butting heads about this territory. This is a spoiler alert that I will get into now because I don't know how much we'll get into it in the future, but Philip and Richard, when they so they the the story that I told in the cold open was legit. They did come together and take up the the call of the cross together. So they did both agree, and it was this really amazing regal moment of like two rival dictators are coming together to quash their differences and fight for the good of Christendom. But they have to make promises that they won't attack each other's that they won't arrange for anyone to seize each other's territories while they're gone. And Philip kind of makes that promise with his fingers crossed behind his back because he's going to get ill during the crusade, he's gonna go back early, and then after trying to basically revoke the vow that he made, he's going to wage war on those territories and take them back.

SPEAKER_00 54:49

Does this happen after the engagement gets broken?

SPEAKER_02 54:52

Yes, yes. So Philip's at this point, like, forget this guy. Like, I do not like Richard at all.

SPEAKER_00 54:58

Um, so he invades Philip invades England.

SPEAKER_02 55:03

Not England, just uh I think just the French territories that were technically in that weird shared overlap thing.

SPEAKER_00 55:11

I mean, I can you blame him for that? Like, can you really you know don't break promises, don't you know, don't be uh don't make a pinky promise and then break it. Yeah, but uh that that's what I'm I I don't know. I I can't imagine myself being king and being super thrilled that the king of another country has a bunch of territory in my area.

SPEAKER_02 55:40

Yeah. But that was just feudalism, man. I think I feel like that was a pretty common common issue they had to deal with. There was always like this weird sense of ownership in the in the vassal kind of world.

SPEAKER_00 55:52

So um you're right, and we're slowly sort of getting into uh the countries being established. Exactly. Feudalism is evolving, yes, very much so. Yeah, all right, okay, all right. So in feudal feudal Europe, it made more sense for him to be Duke.

SPEAKER_02 56:11

Sure, sure. But again, I'm sure it was not a popular thing. Um, one of the things about Richard that I thought was really interesting. So um, well, we'll get yeah, okay, hold on one second. So we talked about the Saladin tax. This was a 10% tax on all movable goods and citizen income. That is a massive tax. And I read an arg article that said that this may have actually been one of the first income taxes ever imposed, which is a very interesting moment in history, especially if you're a big tax history guy. Um, so people did not like this. Uh apparently there were some revolts and riots, even though there are people who were generally in favor of the crusades, they didn't want to be taxed out the wazoo for it. So then the church had to come around and say, Okay, listen, pay your taxes or we're gonna excommunicate you. And that's how they were and that's how they resolved it. Um, but then that was what was interesting because the incentive for going on crusade was first and foremost, plenary indulgence, which means kiss those sins goodbye. Um, you don't have to pay the Saladin tithe. Um, all of your interest on debts is frozen, uh, extended delays on paying back loans, um, all of your land, property, the well-being of your family fell falls under direct protection of the Catholic Church itself, which means that if you leave and someone tries to take your stuff, like the church will claim personal responsibility for that loss, which is a pretty solid insurance policy. Uh so I think when I look back on that, and then another thing about Richard was Richard sold off royal lands, he sold personal castles that he owned, he sold lordships, he sold offices, he sold a ton of stuff so that he could fund his army going on crusade, which I would say had very little military or political like uh you know positives for him. I think he was straight up just like this is a good thing. I want to go on the city.

SPEAKER_00 58:25

Like Godfrey did that. Yeah, the parallels are strong here. I mean very much so. Very much so. Wow. Okay. So people are revolting against the tax. Is the tax considered an indulgence?

SPEAKER_02 58:41

No, because I I think it's literally just going to pay for uh the military to go on crusade.

SPEAKER_00 58:48

So and that's a difference between first and third. Because first crusade they sold indulgences to fund it. Oh, that's a good point. This time they're just taxing everybody, saying, Nope, this is what we're all gonna do, you're all chipping in. A little support raising, if you will. Yeah, support raising. Is that what taxation is, John Simon? Support raising.

SPEAKER_02 59:08

The government's just knocking on your door, like, hey, I've got some really exciting things I'm gonna be doing in the next year. I wanted to know if uh you'd like to partner with me in it. Right. A couple cool roads and you know.

SPEAKER_00 59:20

I I know we have we you we have to land the plane soon, but I personally believe that this tax is what uh so so there's like three things that I think lead to this is Taylor just on his preliminary research. There's like three things that make the Third Crusade happen and happen well to avoid spoilers. Uh one Jerusalem that that news breaks out and everyone's inspired. Two, they got money and resources. Like never, you know, I want to be like Trump, be like, never before have we seen like they have money and uh three Saladin's little unification is actually starting to to break away. People are going back to their original caliphates or whatever you want to call it. So Saladin is weakening, which is that that's part of the reason the first crusades were able to come in and do well and be because it was fractured Islam. So Islam is starting to splinter again, and so it's just an ebb and flow, right? Yeah. So like Saladin took Jerusalem because fractured Christendom, and now Islam is fractured or fracturing, and Christendom is united and has more money than ever before.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:49

Well, and that's why like the Third Crusade, I think, I think is gearing up to be the most exciting crusade that we've covered so far. Because one, you have these two monolith figures who are both very capable military leaders and very beloved representatives of their faith, and Islam is fractured a little bit, Christendom is fractured a little bit, but they're about to like just clash in this way where I think this is the most equal fight that we've seen.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:20

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:21

So yeah, I don't know. There's gonna be some wins, some losses, but this is this is not gonna be this is not gonna strongly favor one side, I would say.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:31

That's yeah, this isn't a sweep. Rally by the way. But this I would say the third crusade seems like the Latin's best showing.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:39

Yeah. They're they're looking good, at least, you know. Yeah, yeah. We're like watching the pre-fight montage, and we're like, oh okay, it's looking great. That's right.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:47

Yeah, we're talking about the the previous two the previous two fights for you know. That's right. Yeah. It's it's one of those things where like in the first crusade, they swooped in and they they had training, so to speak, and uh, you know, Kimbo Slice didn't know what he was doing and got exactly knocked out. And then in round two, Kimbo got trained up.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:09

And now round round three here, you know, we're he's in shape, he's uh he's he's making weight, you know, his his his trainers are confident. They're like, no, yeah, he's a he's a different person. He's a different person.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:20

No, we're one one if you think about it. And the Crusades were kind of one-one.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:24

I th yeah, no, a hundred percent. Yeah. So one one was the surprise knockout victory from the unknown rookie, and then two was the was the beatdown, yeah, was the sophomore slump. So now who who wins the who wins the uh the best of three.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:41

Got some good players. Oh yeah. I know so we ended up talking a lot. I hope you like, do you still have a ton of other things to go over?

SPEAKER_02 1:02:49

No, I've got like I've got like one quote to read and I'm done.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:52

Hit us with it.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:53

Hit us with it, yeah. This is Christopher Tyron. This is uh him doing, I think, a great summary of both the spirit of the Crusaders and the challenge that they were walking into. Uh he says, uh the patterns of recruitment across Europe are striking for two reasons their scale and their cause. The emotions of those who took the cross, mixed devotion, anger, adventure, peer group pressure, escapism, and the insistence of social superiors and employers. The success in mobilizing such huge armies from a large area testifies to the coherence of the appeal as much as the efficiency of organization. That organization depended heavily on the leaders, especially the kings. And then I've got one last part here. Subsequent disappointments and failures should not color perceptions of the impulses that raised these massive armies in the first place. One overwhelming emotion for any crusader, notable for the prominence it held in crusade sermons, was fear, fear of pain, hardship, alien surroundings, physical torment, and likely death. Leopold V, Duke of Austria, sailed from Venice in the autumn of 1190. After wintering in Zara in the Adriatic, he arrived in Acre, or Acre, I don't know, the following spring. His personal following was modest. A contemporary German chronicler of the Third Crusade named ten chief companions. Of these, nine died, the tenth only surviving after illness. The preachers and propagandists knew what they were talking about. To become a crusader was to invite the torments of the cross. So, what does that look like moving forward? What happens when the crusaders and the Islamic armies of the Ayyubid dynasty finally meet? Tune in next week. Tune in next week for the Battle of Acre. That's right. Yeah. Akre. I don't know. I don't know. We just read. I just read.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:05

I know stuff. I don't know. Anyway, great job. Good sources, JS. This was a fun one. It was almost like it was like back to like a kind of a summary episode almost.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:19

Yeah. Like I said, there wasn't like a lot of big events that happened. It's just kind of we're setting the stage. The people are getting ready, you know, rivalries forming, all that jazz. So it's perfect. Yeah. Well, listeners, thank you guys so much for listening. We always appreciate you. Like I said, give us a shout out in the comments. We'd love to know what your background is as far as your church, or even if you're just like, I don't go to church. I just come to the church.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:43

I'm actually an atheist.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:45

Yeah. Who knows? I don't know. Welcome. Let us know. We'd love to know more. And then uh remember, stay tuned. We are still planning our watch party sometime this summer, probably middle to late August, where we're gonna uh meet up on Discord with really as many of you guys as want to join us, probably on a Saturday afternoon sometime, and we're gonna watch Kingdom of Heaven, and it's gonna be super awesome, and I'm excited about it.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:09

Maybe we could do some giveaways.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:11

Oh, that's a good idea. Some contests or something? That's right. We plan things. We do. We plan things on air. On air. Yeah. I love it.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:20

I love it. Oh, dude, I got it. I got it. I got it. We'll do a couple giveaways with um like history quizzes. Like quizzes about the crusades. Good, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:29

Let's go. All right. All right, well, Chump Nation, we appreciate you guys. Peace and love. We'll see you next time. Bye!